How Technology Advancement Is Delivering Value to Customers In 2018

In today’s world, most successful companies are technology companies. Thousands of new businesses creating products and services aimed at helping companies gain competitive advantages in this overly competitive market.

And while the impact of technological advancement on businesses is undebatable, it’s time to switch our focus and examine its value to customers’ lives.

Below are six ways technological advancements are making customers’ lives better.

1. Increased choice and accessibility to products and services

Technological innovations such as the internet have profoundly eased the effort needed by customers to gain access to products and services.

They have also increased the number of products and services in the market- giving customers the freedom of choice.

Through platforms such as e-commerce stores, customers no longer have to stick with products they don’t like. They have the power to shift subscriptions at will and try out new vendors until they find products that fit their preferences.

This level of choice was almost impossible a few years ago and is one of the biggest advantages of technology.

2. Technology has made products cheaper

The interaction of supply and demand is one of the biggest determinants of the prices of products and services.

Due to the increasing supply of products- made possible by technology- businesses are forced to reduce their prices or else their customers may rush to cheaper alternatives.

No company is immune to the law of supply and demand– and even the businesses that try to continue selling their products at high prices either run out of business or finally cave and reduce them.

There is value in saving. Technology is adding value to our lives by helping us spend less money on products that were previously more expensive.

3. Increased self-service giving customers more control

A few years ago, long queues were the norm- lots of customers waiting in lines for their turn to be served by a business. It was almost impossible to buy any service or product without interacting with a salesperson until technology came along.

Today, customers no longer have to queue. They can buy any product from the comfort of their homes. The adoption of self-service technology by many companies has made buying hustle-free. These businesses have given the customers the power to control when they buy, what they buy and how they want to buy it.

Self-service is the future of customer experience. Research done by Gartner predicts that by 2020, customers will manage 85 percent of their relationship with a business without interacting with a human. It is such predictions that make technological advancement worth the time and effort that millions of people around the world invest in it.

4. An increase in convenience through mobile technology

It’s frustrating to be confined to one place as a condition for using any product. This is what many people had to endure before major innovations in mobile technology changed the sphere.

Today, you don’t have to visit a studio or call a photographer every time you need a passport photo. Advancements in camera technology have placed a camera in the palms of everyone who owns a mobile phone. You could take a passport photo in your backyard if you wanted to.

Technology is making life more convenient for everyone. By removing the constraints of location and time, technology is quickly becoming a ‘basic human need’ that will continue empowering customers and making life easier.

5. Information access is helping customers make more informed decisions

Over the years, the transmission, processing, and storage of data has become faster, easier and increasingly cheaper. This has led to an increase in the sharing of information over multiple means with the leading platform being digital landscapes.

Blogs, digital magazines, and social media are quickly becoming the libraries of information as billions of people share information through these platforms every single day. This surge in the amount of information available is leading to the education of customers.

Customers can quickly get the information they need when they are researching a product or vendor. This is leading to more informed decisions since the information is just a mouse click away.

Knowledge is power, and the role of technological advancement in empowering customers will continue to increase as more innovative and easy to access means of information sharing are developed.

6. Increased automation saves time and improves customer satisfaction

Automation technology has been growing rapidly in recent years.

It started with production automation that saved businesses hefty sums spent in production costs. Today, automation has extended to customer relationships, with most businesses automating most parts of their interactions with their customers.

Introducing technologies like chatbots, artificial intelligence, and behavior-triggered tasks are now the norm and are ensuring that customer relationships run smoothly with minimal human intervention.

Business automation is making life easier for both online and offline customers. In fact, automation has been proven to be a key determinant of customer satisfaction and with more technological innovations in this area, customer satisfaction is bound to continue increasing with time.

Wrapping up

Technology has profoundly changed the business landscape and its impact will continue growing as long as more businesses continue adopting technologies that add value to customers’ lives.

Given its role in determining customer experience and satisfaction, no business owner can underplay the value of technological advancement to businesses and customers. Without happy customers a business’s death is inevitable. It’s for this reason that businesses should invest more resources into new technologies that will help them keep customers happy and satisfied.

Take action today. Look for ways that you can use technology to add value to the lives of your customers and you will be setting up your business for success.

Hassan Mansoor is the Founder and Director at Technical Minds Web. After completing Masters in Business Administration, he established a small digital marketing agency with the primary focus to help the small business owners to grow their online businesses. Being a small entrepreneur, he has learned from project management, and day to day staff management and staff productivity. He's a regular contributor on Business.com.

[03/28/2019]
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